The telecommunications (telecom) industry today, and particularly the wireless telecom industry, is characterized by numerous proprietary systems operated by different telecom service providers. Each proprietary system typically provides access points to the network.
Access points, also referred to herein as access nodes, comprise equipment to provide communication access to the network. For example, access nodes for wireless telephones may comprise General Packet Radio Server (GPRS) towers and antennae. Access points for terrestrial (so called ‘land-line’ communications) may comprise Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology, cable modems, so-called WiFi (IEEE 802.11b compliant) technology, or Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS).
Telecom providers also provide call control functions. Call control functions comprise establishing and terminating a connection between two or more devices or other end points of a call. Call control functions also comprise establishing a quality of service (QoS) for a communication session. Quality of service includes voice quality, data quality, and kilobits per second of data transfer. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) compliant equipment may be employed for call control for communications utilizing the Internet Protocol (IP). Other types of call control equipment include Mobile Switching Centers (MSC) for wireless communication, PSTN switching centers, and Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) equipment for GPRS calls. A call control ‘node’ comprises one or more items of equipment to perform call control.
Telecom providers also provide communication services. Services include features provided beyond mere call control, such as voice mail, email, stock quotes, web browsing, video streaming, virtual private networks (VPNs), and so on. Service equipment may vary according to the service provided. A service ‘node’ comprises one or more items of equipment to provide one or more services.
The nodes of different telecom providers may interoperate to provide access, call control, and services across a wide geographic area. For example, a wireless telephone, when roaming to a geographic location distant from its home location, may employ the access node of a different provider than the one the phone is subscribed to. When placing a wireless phone call from a home location to a distant location, call control nodes of both the home provider and a different service provider may be employed to complete the connection to the target of the call. However, the wireless subscriber (the person operating the wireless phone) typically does not have a choice as to which provider's access, call control, and service equipment are employed in such circumstances. The choice is typically made according to pre-arranged defaults (e.g. pre-arrangements between providers as to which access nodes will operate with the subscriber's wireless device when roaming, which call control nodes to employ when placing calls between provider networks, etc.). Furthermore, the services that the subscriber can access, whether roaming or otherwise, are typically limited by the service plan to which they subscribe and by the equipment of the subscription provider.
Default selection of access, call control, and service nodes may provide less than optimal cost, service, and quality benefits to the subscriber.